Month: April 2005

Making the Lexmark Z515 work under Debian Linux

Post author By aquarion
Post date 2005-04-15

Lexmark printers are notorious for being crapper than a crap thing on St Craps day, whilst playing Craps in a pile of crap on the planet “Crap” within the solar-system “Crap”, especially under Linux.

Nevertheless, I bought one. Because it was cheap.

(It does, I should warn potential followers in my footsteps, come with a half-filled colour cartridge and no black. Factor in another 15 (The same cost as the printer, fact fans) for a full black cartridge. Cheap printers are a false economy. Lesson ends)

Much of the work of getting this all working under Debian has already been done, and much of this article cribs liberally from the Gentoo Wiki article for the same thing.

These instructions are for Debian Sarge (That’s ‘Testing’) and so should also work with Ubuntu.

This is what you do:

Preparation:

apt-get install gs gs-esp cupsys printconf alien

(I love Debian)

Grab the Real Linux Drivers from Lexmark:

http://downloads.lexmark.com/cgi-perl/downloads.cgi?ccs=229:1:0:389:0:0&emeaframe=&fileID=1151

Installation:

Create a new directory, and put the file you downloaded above inside it. Lexmark’s drivers all extract to the current directory.

Be inside that directory

Bypass their horrible “auto install” script by running:

tail -n +143 z600cups-1.0-1.gz.sh > install.tar.gz

and then extract install.tar.gz (which also goes to the current directory)

You should now have a whole host of useless files and a couple of RPMs (Because we all know that everyone uses deadrat, don’t we? sigh) so we turn them into Debian packages using Alien:

alien *.rpm

And then “dpkg -i” on both of them to install. Make sure the printer is plugged in and turned on, and then run:

ldconfig

followed by:

/usr/lib/cups/backend/z600

Which should say something like:

direct z600:/dev/usb/lp0 "Lexmark Lexmark 510 Series" "Lexmark Printer"

Cups

Setting up cups is somewhat beyond the scope of this article, but what the hell.

Default install of cups doesn’t let anyone outside the local machine access the interface. If this is cool, great, otherwise edit the /etc/cupsd.conf file to let in anyone in 192.168.* or whatever your network’s on.

Cups interface is on http://localhost:631 (It’d be useful if the package mentioned that while it was installing, or something) the admin password is your root password (the username is ‘root’) so don’t, whatever you do, ever access CUPS admin over an Internet connection until you change that behaviour. It’s a stupid bloody default anyway.

So. Click “Administration”, “Add Printer”, Fill in stuff, “Lexmark” (Use the top one, rather than “USB #1 Lexmark” or whatever), Make is – duh – Lexmark, Model is the only one it gives you, Print a test page to make sure it’s working, if it isn’t, then “tail -f /var/log/cups/*log” to see why.

Have A Lot Of Fun.

Imported From Epistula music

Technologic

Post author By aquarion
Post date 2005-04-13

Buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, melt – upgrade it,
charge it, pawn it, zoom it, press it, snap it, work it, quick – erase it, write it, get it, paste it, save it, load it, check it, quick – rewrite it, plug it, play it, burn it, rip it, drag and drop it, zip – unzip it, lock it, fill it, curl it, find it, view it, curl it, jam – unlock it, surf it, scroll it, pose it, click it, cross it, crack it, twitch – update it, name it, read it, tune it, print it, scan it, send it, fax – rename it, touch it, bring it, obey it, watch it, turn it, leave it, stop – format it.

Buy it, Use it, Break it, Fix it, Crash it, Change it, Melt, Upgrade it, Charge it, Pawn it, Zoom it, Press it, Snap it, Work it, Quick, Erase it,
Write it, Get it, Paste it, Save it, Load it, Check it, Quick, Rewrite it,
Plug it, Play it, Burn it, Rip it, Drag and Drop it, Zip, Unzip it, Lock it, Fill it, Curl it, Find it, View it, Curl and Jam Lock it, Surf and Scroll it, Those that click it, Gross and Crack and Twitch update it, Name it, Read it, Tune it, Print it, Scan it, Send it, Fax, Rename it, Touch it, Bring it babe, Watch it turn and leave, its time for matic.

Technologic

Imported From Epistula tv

Dr Wh

Post author By aquarion
Post date 2005-04-12

So, being a Bad and Evil person, and being in London on Saturday, I got a friend to record Dr Who for me, and I downloaded it on Sunday.

Monday I got my DVD software to write a copy of the downloaded file as a Real DVD.

This evening we watched it.

What we didn’t know was that 85% of the way though the download atoll crashed, and the download stopped. So the file isn’t complete and the episode just stopped right at the height of the climaxing scene.

By this method, we have achived the number one wet dream of every single Dr Who fan accross the world with regards to this series, and got a two part Dr Who story. To Be Continued Tomorrow, when the file’s downloaded.

Arse.

Imported From Epistula MLP

Rename

Post author By aquarion
Post date 2005-04-12

I will now be refered to as “Brother Sword of Courteous Debate”

Be renamed

Imported From Epistula Politics

The Election In Blog Form

Post author By aquarion
Post date 2005-04-11

Mucking around with a link Murky posted to Blogpulse’s “Trends” system, I’ve built this:

A graph of the election

(TinyURL)

(I’ve had to muck around with it a bit, Boris Johnson isn’t actually a candiate for PM – though it might be more fun if he was – but he had to be in there for the colours to work…)

Computer Games Imported From Epistula Movies Personal social tv

Dungeons, Dragons, Bananaguards and other random things

Post author By aquarion
Post date 2005-04-11

So, recently then.

Last week I passed my driving theory test. This was cool, but not unexpected (I passed it first time around, though that was before Hazard Perception.). Hazard Perception is a video based test of your reactions to events, you have to click the mouse when you see a hazard, again every time it gets worse.

It’s much like Grand Theft Auto, really, except with clicking on the pedestrians rather than running them down in cold blood. Close enough.

I have also accidentally bought a copy of “Regina’s Song”, the latest non-fantasy books by the Eddings’. I haven’t read it but I nevertheless own it, as the library fines are about to exceed the worth of the book. Taking it back now would mean paying them to take it away.

Isn’t Dr Who good? Yes. It is good. The tardis is apparently powered by a bicycle pump, which was something of a suprise.

This weekend was LC’s birthday, so we wandered down to Wagamama’s (which is a Tradition) and then to see Mitch Benn (which isn’t, but will be). She has written more on this day. And yes, I bought her a BananaGuard for her birthday.

Yesterday we finished the weekend on a low note with the Dungeons and Dragons Movie, which is an incredibly, amazingly terrible movie. It’s got The Bloke Who Played Jimmy In The New Adventures Of Superman (Jimmy mk 2, anyway) staring as a chaotic neutral thief who eventually duel-classes as a mage, his friend Snails who doesn’t really level up ever, and a Miss-Jones-You’re-Beautiful type female mage. Jeremy Irons (The thinking economist’s Alan Rickman) is the Lawful Evil Bad Guy, someone else is the Slightly More Evil, But Possibly Less Evil Chaotic Neutral minion, and a whole host of people you’ve not heard of. Oh, and Richard O’Brian as a crazy person who has a maze. Again.

We spent the entire movie eating chineefoo and discussing how each character had rolled in char-gen. Irons got a fairly high Charisma, for example, and Jimmy2 apparently took an extra level in swordplay when he leveled up near the end…

It’s terrible, but fun in a ‘My god, it’s full of cliches!’ type way. Perfect D&D, really. And there’s going to be a sequel, which I await with…

…fear.

Imported From Epistula MotW

Get better elections!

Post author By aquarion
Post date 2005-04-08

Once again, we have entered the realms of a General Election. I’ve been trying to sort an article in my head on my thoughts on the current block of politicos, and have given up for the time being. Instead, a summary, by the Bonzos.

No matter who you vote for

driving Imported From Epistula weblog